


They Were Actually Embarrassing

by foobars



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Billy Hargrove & Maxine "Max" Mayfield Bonding, Billy Hargrove & Maxine "Max" Mayfield Have a Good Relationship, M/M, Maxine “Max” Mayfield’s POV, Robin Buckley (mentioned) - Freeform, Scoops Ahoy (Stranger Things), Shoplifting, Shoplifting from the GAP
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-23
Updated: 2020-06-23
Packaged: 2021-03-03 19:41:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,450
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24880975
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/foobars/pseuds/foobars
Summary: Max lifted the bikini up against Billy, squinting and making a show of pretending to imagine him in it, because she was getting tired of being ignored, but he didn’t seem to notice. Still staring in the direction of Steve dropping Cherry Jubilee on his blue sailor shirt.
Relationships: Billy Hargrove/Steve Harrington
Comments: 6
Kudos: 148





	They Were Actually Embarrassing

**Author's Note:**

> Something short and sweet that I wrote in one sitting just because.

“Do you think this is my color?” Max asked, just to be annoying, holding up a turquoise bikini. One Billy would absolutely _never_ let her buy.

Billy hummed, and Max almost rolled her eyes because the main reason she picked up the turquoise bikini that Billy would absolutely never buy is because Billy had been quiet for the past twenty minutes they were in the GAP, and she wanted to get a rise out of him.

She almost thrust the stupid turquoise bikini in her older brother’s dumb face when she realized he wasn’t even looking in her direction.

He was looking across the Starcourt Mall, into the weird ice cream place where Steve worked. Max watched, just like Billy, as Steve tried, and failed, to flirt with a girl while making a sundae. He dropped his scoop, and she had to look away. It was embarrassing to even watch.

Max lifted the bikini up against Billy, squinting and making a show of pretending to imagine him in it, because she was getting tired of being ignored, but he didn’t seem to notice. Still staring in the direction of Steve dropping Cherry Jubilee on his blue sailor shirt.

And Max was about to go off, right there in the GAP, tell Billy to lay off, remind him of a certain _agreement_ they had, but something in the way Billy was looking stopped her. Because the way he was looking wasn’t with malice or whatever else she’d imagined he usually looked at Steve with, it was a different look, something she couldn’t quite place. It felt far too... intimate, to try and decipher.

Billy being intimate. She almost puked in her mouth.

Max lowered the bikini from Billy’s chest, raised an eyebrow. “You can go talk to him, if you want. I’ll be fine.” She wasn’t going to buy the stupid bikini. Her mom would have a cow. Either that or she’d coo over her, talking about how her _sweet little Maxine_ is _growing up_ or something equally as vomit inducing as Billy being sincere.

Billy seemed to come back to himself after she spoke, snapped out of whatever trance he was in, and glanced down at her. His lips pursed, obviously noticing the pieces of fabric that would likely get Max arrested for public indecency. “Nice suit.”

Max felt her jaw drop, mouth gaping like a fish, because Billy just basically encouraged her to get the turquoise bikini that wouldn’t cover _anything_. “Are you on drugs?”

Billy rolled his eyes, then dug one of his hands out of his pockets to grab the mannequin’s to his left. He took it’s plastic hand and shoved it into his jacket, sniffled. “I’m not on drugs, shut your trap.”

Max decided to ignore the fact that he stole a _mannequin hand_ of all things. “Then why were you looking over there and being all weird?”

Billy rolled his eyes, “Jesus, Max. Can’t a guy be hungry?”

He’d always been a terrible liar, and even if he hadn’t, she watched him eat a whole pan-full of scrambled eggs that morning. There was no way he was hungry.

“Why don’t you just go talk to Steve?” Max asked, and when Billy scoffed, she knew she hit the nail on the head.

“I don’t exactly think reminiscing about the time I broke a plate on his head is a good ice breaker. Do you?”

Max rolled her eyes, placing the turquoise bikini back on the rack. She liked one pieces more anyways.

“Besides, I thought I wasn’t _allowed_ to.” Billy’s words might’ve meant to come out aggressive or something threatening, but they just made him sound like a petulant child. It almost made her laugh. She bit her cheek to keep in her smile.

“Something tells me you _aren’t_ going to start a brawl in the Scoops Ahoy at eleven am.”

Billy grunted in response, looking back in the direction of the Scoops Ahoy. He glanced back down at her quickly, then frowned. Maybe Max wasn’t as good at hiding her smile as she thought. “What’re you smiling about?”

Busted.

It was cute. Well, it was _disgusting_ because it was _Billy_ but it was still cute because as much as Max would deny it, she thought romance was nice.

“I think it’s swee—“

Billy shoved a fuchsia swimsuit from the rack in her face. The taste of mass produced swimwear tangy on her tongue. She gagged. Billy was still frowning at her when she removed it from her head. “Shut your trap.”

Max let the fuchsia monstrosity fall to the tiled floor of the GAP, and looked back to where Steve’s coworker was tallying something on the right side of a whiteboard. Steve closed the window in her face. She just walked back out into the front laughing.

“Just go talk to him.” The taste of the bathing suit was still festering in Max’s mouth. “You’re no help here anyways.”

“Fine.” Billy said quickly, as if he were actually waiting for Max’s blessing or something, and fluffed up his hair. She rolled her eyes, his hair ended up looking the exact same.

“Find something that feels like _you_ , don’t buy that turquoise shit. I’ll be back in ten.” Billy straightened his jacket, nodded to himself, then sped off like a man on a mission. It was embarrassing to even be seen with him, but she still watched as he almost ran over the perfume sampler in his haste.

There wasn’t much of a line in the Scoops Ahoy, something Billy took advantage of as he walked up to the counter, slowing his pace to look less like a mental patient and more like the cool guy he pretended to be.

Steve’s coworker took one look at him, shook her head, and walked into the back room.

Steve himself was bent under the counter, replacing a tub in the display case while Billy leaned over the glass casually, as if he hadn’t just practically sprinted sixty feet across the mall.

Max saw Billy say something, his mouth moving slowly as he grabbed one of the sample spoons from their container. He stuck it between his lips, and Max sighed. He’s hopeless, he’s _embarrassing_.

Steve bumped his head against the glass when he finally stood up, looking nervous as he stared at Billy. And a part of Max, the part that knew Billy had changed, at least a _bit_ , hoped Steve wouldn’t freak out, because Billy was an asshole but he was also her brother.

Max was one step away from shoplifting and running to the rescue when she noticed Steve’s cheeks were red.

Billy plucked the sample spoon from his mouth and pointed it in the direction of the splotch of Cherry Jubilee stained on Steve’s sailor shirt. Steve laughed. When Billy pulled the stupid mannequin hand out from inside of his jacket and placed it on the counter, Steve jumped and dropped his scoop. 

Max took that as her cue to look away, because they were actually _embarrassing_. She grabbed a striped dark green one piece and made her way to the checkout counter, pulling out the twenty her mom had given her earlier that morning. The cashier was just as condescending as she had expected the old bat to be, and she collected her change and dropped it into the bag with the receipt.

Max stood in the center of the GAP with her bag and her new bathing suit, waiting for Billy to come back, hoping that for once _ten minutes_ actually meant _ten minutes_. She eyed the display case with the sunglasses on top, but decided they could wait, because the old cashier was watching her like a hawk.

When Billy _did_ return, just under ten minutes later like he’d promised, the cashier had long lost interest. Billy walked up to the mannequin from before and slipped the other hand into his jacket pocket. “Hey.”

“How was your talk?” Max asked, swiping a blue t-shirt off the rack and into her bag as they walked towards the entrance.

“It was fine, now shut your trap.” Billy swiftly plucked a bright yellow watch off the display case, dropping it in the bag on top of the shirt. He threw in a yellow scrunchie after that, then sped off to, in his own words, _find a damn record store_.

Max followed him out of the GAP with her bag full of goodies, then looked back to the Scoop’s Ahoy. The stupid mannequin hand was gone from the countertop, and Steve’s coworker was in the open window tallying something on the left side of the whiteboard.

Steve closed the window in her face. He was smiling.

**Author's Note:**

> They have a shoplifting routine, buy something and shove random shit into the bag on their way out.
> 
> You can rip Billy and Max as siblings from my cold, dead hands. *Puts on clown wig* Can’t wait to see it in season four!


End file.
